Kenneth Steinbach - Drawing and Sculpture

Kenneth Steinbach

The Machine in the Ghost. Installation view.  2010-2013  Unique carved and polychromed wood, about 2600 individual elements.  Wood for the work was stolen from the grounds of the museum of the childhood home of Charles Lindbergh in Little Falls, Minnesota.

Name:  Kenneth Steinbach  

City/State:  Shoreview, MN

Email:  kennethsteinbach@gmail.com

Website:  kennethsteinbach.com

MNartist.org profile:  http://www.mnartists.org/artistHome.do?rid=11586

Bio~Kenneth Steinbach is an artist who uses a variety of media and approaches, but works principally in sculpture.  Recent exhibits include The New Forests of Thoreau’s America at the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul, and Still There at the Gallery at Fox Tax in Minneapolis.  He has shown throughout the United States, including exhibits at the Phillip Slein Gallery in St. Louis, and Koplin Del Rio Gallery in Los Angeles, and Circa Gallery in Minneapolis who has represented his work for the past seven years.  He has work in numerous corporate, academic, and individual collections including Midway Contemporary Art in Minneapolis, and NYCAMS in New York. Kenneth Steinbach is the recipient of two Minnesota State Arts Board grants and two grants from Bethel University in direct support of his work and research.  He is Professor of Art in Sculpture at Bethel University in St. Paul, and a member of Form + Content Gallery. 

Kenneth is currently working on a body of research investigating the cognitive and creative habits of mid career artists.  He lives in Shoreview with his wife Kari, and daughter Harper Leigh, and two impossibly enthusiastic wiener dogs.

The Machine in the Ghost.  Detail view.

Tell me about your work? What are you currently working on? How is this different from past projects?

I am continuing a series of drawings and sculptural works that explore the shifting of narratives and memories attached to materials, objects and locations.  Many of those works use materials/objects with very loaded histories- wood taken from the grounds of the Lindbergh House in Little Falls, Minnesota for example, or slate chalkboards from an abandoned schoolhouse.  I am also continuing a 10 year series of works using epoxy resin, in which dozens of ink drawings are suspended in layers of epoxy resin.  For the first time I am using the figure in the resin works, and engaging ideas related to geography and exploration. The upcoming show at Circa Gallery will feature these drawings, as well as multiple sculptural works using slate, drawings on ivory piano keys, and slate from an abandoned middle school. 

How did you decide to become an artist?

When I started studying art in college I realized that I responded to the physicality of making work.  The resistance of the materials allowed me to focus on specific themes and concerns for a longer time and allowed for an expressive gravitas that other art forms did not.  I have never really considered doing anything else.

For Pierre Menard, Author of the Don Quixote.  

Found and carved wood.  Dimensions variable.  2010.

What was the best advice given to you as an artist? 

Try everything.  Which, interestingly, is the same advice that you might give someone if you were trying to drive them crazy.

Many artists struggle to find ways to sell their art.  How do you sell your work?  How do you market yourself?

I am represented by Circa Gallery in Minneapolis and also belong to Form + Content Gallery, a cooperative gallery, in Minneapolis. http://www.formandcontent.org

My website:  Kennethsteinbach.com

Untitled (Lindbergh House #6).  

Ink drawings suspended in layers of epoxy resin.  30” x 60” x 1.5”

Who are some of the Minnesota artists you enjoy?

The writing of Louise Erdrich (http://birchbarkbooks.com/), Kent Meyers (http://kentmeyers.com/), and Tim O’Brien (http://www.illyria.com/tobhp.html).  Also Annie Proulx, who is not from Minnesota but should be.

Aesthetic Apparatus:  http://aestheticapparatus.com/

Lex Thompson:  http://www.lexthompson.com/

Megan Vossler:  http://www.meganvossler.com

Michael Kareken:  http://www.michaelkareken.com/

Jay Heikes:  http://www.federicaschiavo.com/Artists/Jay-Heikes

Jennifer Danos: http://jenniferdanos.com/

If I were to follow you around to see art in Minnesota, which places would we go? What would we see?

Assuming that I could bend time and space, we would spend the day hitting all the small town museums across the state.  They hold such fantastic assortments of art, history, artifacts, local oddities, civic records, donated collections.  All of it cheek by jowl in a completely unfiltered way, with terrific interactions and cross references.  Some of the most engaging exhibits around, with enthusiastic staffs- many of whom volunteer just for the love of the museum.

Memoria Animus:  Granville Falls.  8” x 13.25”.  

Scrimshaw on used elephant ivory piano keys. 2010/2013.

In addition to www.Local-Artist-Interviews.com, where do you go online for good art resources, whether to find a new artist, or to see what is going on in the art world locally and otherwise? 

I generally find more artists off the grid, by attending openings, exhibits, and talking with other artists.  MNartists (http://www.mnartists.org/) is also a main point of reference, a terrific resource.

Do you have any exhibits to promote in the near future? 

I have a solo exhibit at Circa gallery in Minneapolis opening Sept 21^st, 2013.  http://www.circagallery.org/exhibits/

I am also curating a show titled Orders of Possibility with Paula McCartney, Lex Thompson, and Sonja Thomsen at Form + Content Gallery, opening in early December.

Untitled (Lamb’s Ear #2).  Waterjet cut chalkboard slate.  42” x 72”.  2012.

What can we expect to see from you in the future? 

As part of an academic research project, I am currently interviewing a large collection of mid career visual artists to determine the suite of creative habits and activities that are engaged by high functioning artists. At some point I hope to present my findings to the creative community in Minnesota in a series of dialogues or workshops.

Kenneth Steinbach

Circa Gallery - Featured Artist

Gallery Profile

Camille Gage-Mixed Media

Untitled, War Redacted Series

Camille Gage

Name: Camille J. Gage
City/State: Minneapolis, MN
Email: cgage@spacestar.net
Website: www.gageart.net and www.formandcontent.org
Facebook: Form+Content Gallery

Bio:
My work explores the duality and temporal nature of life and contemporary social issues. I began my creative journey in my teens, writing music and touring with a variety of bands including the all-female alt-rock band Tetes Noires. I later segued into public art and mixed media performance, often with a topical edge, and received a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from MCAD. I’m a co-founder of the artists collective, Form + Content.


Tell me about your work? What are you currently working on? How is this different from past projects?
My work has always followed two separate but symbiotic tracks: public work, and more personal studio work. I am currently immersed in the former, as the national coordinator for 10 Years + Counting, an artist-led initiative created to bring attention to the 10 year anniversary of our nation at war. It’s basically a colossal, highly topical, public art project. The difference between this and past projects is the sheer scale of it. I’m working with artists, poets, activists and others across the country, all putting our shoulder to the wheel, trying to re-open the public consciousness to the possibility of a peaceful world. Too many have given up believing that an end to war is even possible. (www.10yearsandcounting.org)

Untitled, War Redacted Series

"What is Art?" is certainly too big of a question to ask here, but what do you hope your audience takes away from your art? What statement do you hope to make?
Art is the expression of heart and spirit in the world. It is fearless, pushes boundaries, and can take many forms. The Uruguayan writer, Eduardo Galeano, once wrote that art is the age old response to the mysteries of life and the inevitability of death. That resonated deeply with me.

What was the best advice given to you as an artist?
That reflection is a legitimate aspect of the creative process. You don’t always have to be making. Sometimes you can just think, wonder, imagine and let your mind flow.

Untitled, War Redacted Series

Tell me about your work space and your creative process.
My work space is my heart and mind. I ruminate and reflect. I notice. There are clues and inspiration everywhere. I have a studio, but I usually only go there if I am engaged in the construction of an object for a specific exhibition. Instead, I putter around, think, read, and try to be patient. There is a great passage in the Tao Te Ching that asks if you are able to sit still until your mud settles and the water is clear. That pretty much sums up my process. Cultivating the patience to sit still until the path is clear. When I was little my mom used to say to me, “You have an overactive imagination!” cause I was always daydreaming and making up little plays or stories. She was right. It’s both a blessing and a curse.

Who are some of the Minnesota artists you enjoy?
Oh my god, the list is so long.

Harriet Bart. She is brilliant.
Sandra Menefee Taylor. She has always been one of my favorite locals; her work is so moving.
Ill Chemistry - Desdamona and Carnage performed at Form + Content for the Wee Cabaret performance series and totally blew my mind.
Monica Haller and her Veterans Book Project.
Christopher Baker
Xavier Tavera
Dessa - incredible. Both her music and her essays.

All of my colleagues at Form + Content. Each so different, so committed and talented. We have kept that collective going strong for 5 years - it’s a testament to the strength, integrity and vision of the group.

Untitled, War Redacted Series

If I were to follow you around to see art in Minnesota, which places would we go? What would we see?
Well, of course we would go to Form + Content Gallery! (www.formandcontent.org) It’s an intimate space, and what happens there is pretty amazing. Because it is an artist’s collective there is a freedom that’s palpable. Anyone who has followed the gallery has experienced this - each time a new exhibition is installed the gallery is completed transformed. And we are lucky to have the Weisman Art Museum, the Walker and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. I am thrilled for the re-opening of the Weisman this Fall!

Where do you go online for good art resources, whether to find a new artist, or to see what is going on in the art world locally and otherwise?

Mplsart.com   
mnartists.org 
Facebook

I would like to promote three things: (2011)

First, 10 Years + Counting - I really hope that anyone who reads this will visit the site and be encouraged to do something to mark the 10 year anniversary of the war. We have toolkits, links, book and movie lists. Have a gathering, write a poem, stand on your street corner with a peace sign. Anything, large or small! Be creative, bring joy to the work, and believe that peace is possible. (www.10yearsandcounting.org)

Second, No Glory, the next exhibition at Form + Content Gallery which I co-curated with Suzanne Slavick. The exhibition runs Sept 8 to October 1, 2011 with an opening reception on Saturday, September 10 from 7 to 9 PM. The artists in No Glory resist the glorification of war, envisioning its impact across generations They examine what rains down in destruction and what rises from the ashes. I highly encourage people to stop by the gallery and see this exhibition, which includes the work of 13 artists from across the country. Oh, and It should be mentioned that Susanne Slavick is a intellectual powerhouse and a tireless collaborator. I am in awe of her.

Finally, I have an exhibition opening at Form + Content in November. I’ve invited the local artist Ellen Skoro to show with me. We are both inter-disciplinary artists and I’m very excited about this joint exhibition, which is titled Dreams and Effigies. Our individual work will be separate, but related. We both employed imagery and fragments from our dreams as the leaping off point for the new work included in the exhibition. It’s going to be very magical. It opens November 17 and runs through December 23, 2011. We are hosting an artist’s reception on Saturday, December 17. Ellen has been a wonder to work with: focused, patient, steady. She is all that I am not, and I think we are a good creative team because of it.

Untitled, Peace Predator Series, by Ellen Skoro

Jay Isenberg-Installation - Form and Content Gallery

“Ghosts and Shadows” - Section from the exhibition “Unbundling the Housing Crisis” with Feyereisen Studio

Jay H. Isenberg

Name: Jay H. Isenberg, AIA
City/State: Minneapolis, MN 55416
Email: jhisenberg@me.com
Website: www.formandcontent.org
MNartist.org profile: http://www.mnartists.org/Jay_Isenberg

Bio~
Jay H. Isenberg, AIA is a practicing architect in the Twin Cities, an arbitrator and mediator of design and construction disputes and a founding member of Form+Content Gallery. His projects as an artist are multiple-disciplinary and collaborative and often include a component of public dialogue around specifically themed installations, digital presentations, and performance. His interactive digital submission (with Ron Haselius), "Pilgrimage on the Seam" won an honorable mention designation in the recent Just Jerusalem 2050 international competition (http://www.envisioningpeace.org/).

Tell me about your work? What are you currently working on? How is this different from past projects?
My work as an "artist" sits at the intersection of architecture and it's delivery with issues of law, ethics, politics, social-political conditions and the built environment. It uses the language and materials of architecture, usually with some mix of object and text to depict the ambiguity of situations and how architecture plays a role whether overtly or as subtext. Often, the subject matter addresses the complexity of jewish identity and history including the contemporary. I almost always work collaboratively with invited partners and have created and curated two other exhibitions at Form + Content Gallery with my wife and artist, Lynda Monick-Isenberg.

Currently, we are working on our third exhibition opening July 14th titled: "Interim Report on the Excavation of Zone 5". It involves 5 other architects working together with personal artifacts, found objects and scraped together materials in order to uncover what we are doing, while we are doing it and why. It's a work in progress based on trust, inquiry, making, humor and discovery. A large eclectic "table" made upside down will be the centerpiece with an archeological basis in the display of other pieces; a wunderkammer of sorts seeking a thread of its own reason. It's theme was never defined before we began working together, and that's what's somewhat different, exciting and nerve wracking as well.

“Dialogue on the Wall” - installation with Lynda Monick-Isenberg

"What is Art?" is certainly too big of a question to ask here, but what do you hope your audience takes away from your art? What statement do you hope to make?
All of my work is a mediation on my own ambiguity, which apparently I need to depict, defend, facilitate with others and share.

Can you describe the “line” between art and design and how that affects your work?
I wouldn’t say it’s a “line”, rather an ambiguous zone where creativity happens within a vocabulary made up of the two disciplines but a process more akin to the design where iterations of an idea are developed, critiqued and then revised. It’s an open ended process, invitational, collaborative, argumentative, builds upon itself and only has an end because it has an explicit deadline. The challenges a client brings to the architect in me is more familiar and comfortable than the struggle an absent client brings to the artist in me. The results are quite different but related, others are far more articulate in describing the condition.

What was the best advice given to you as an artist?
Don’t be afraid, work at it with others better than you, critique yourself, make up your mind, laugh at yourself, change it, finish it already, be done, make it and hang or install it already. I don't know where any of this came from, it's what bangs around inside my head.

“Interim Report” - reAssembly Detail

Tell me about your work space and your creative process.
No such singular space. I have a light filled "studio" space above our detached garage filed with remnants of 25 years of practicing architecture, a corner in the house where the laptop sits, a kitchen table that doubles as layout for everyone in our family, a table at half a dozen coffee shops around town, and have worked in the studios of several collaborating professionals. Much work also gets done on dog walks and 20 mile bike rides listening to Dylan, as well as in the space before waking up from a sudden nap on the couch, chair or at the keyboard.

Who are some of the Minnesota artists you enjoy?

Fellow gallery members at Form+Content (www.formandcontent.org)

Architects in the Department of Public Design's Council of Firms (http://thedepartmentofpublicdesign.blogspot.com/)

Alec Soth (http://alecsoth.com/photography/)

James Lileks (http://www.lileks.com/)

Non Minnesota artist: Walid Raad (http://www.theatlasgroup.org/)

“Two Walls” - digital installation with Ron Haselius

If I were to follow you around to see art in Minnesota, which places would we go? What would we see?
Afraid I don't go to many art galleries other than Form+Content (www.formandcontent.org) openings where there would be a different show every six weeks, the Walker Art Center (http://www.walkerart.org/) and the MIA (http://www.artsmia.org/). If you followed me there you'd likely plan on a short visit. I also have a great respect for the owners and the work at Homewood Studio in North MInneapolis (http://www.homewoodstudios.com/).

I'd rather walk, drive and bike the city to see "art".


Where do you go online for good art resources, whether to find a new artist, or to see what is going on in the art world locally and otherwise?

Stumbleupon (http://www.stumbleupon.com/)
Cool Hunting (http://www.coolhunting.com/)
Archidose (http://archidose.blogspot.com/)
Visual Complexity (http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/)

Do you have any exhibits to promote in the near future?
Yes, the exhibition noted above, "Interim Report on the Excavation of Zone 5" at Form + Content Gallery.
The info is below:

"Interim Report on the Excavation of Zone 5" - Exhibition media image

Form+Content Gallery and the Department of Public Design present

an interim report on the Excavation of ZONE 5

JULY 14 – AUGUST 20, 2011
OPENING RECEPTION
SATURDAY, JULY 16, 6-9 PM

The Director of the Department of Public Design announced today
that an ambiguous assortment of artifacts and materials
recently uncovered in Zone 5, will be evaluated by the
Council of Architects and presented in an exhibition of reassembly.

Curated by Jay H. Isenberg and Lynda Monick-Isenberg

Council of Architects:
Alchemy
ALTUS Architecture + Design
CITYDESKSTUDIO
Locus Architecture
RoehrSchmitt/HLKB Architecture

watch for further information and updates at
http://thedepartmentofpublicdesign.blogspot.com

Form+Content Gallery
210 N 2nd St • Mpls, MN 55401 • 612-436-1151 • Thur-Sat 12-6 pm

www.formandcontent.org

Jay Isenberg

Loretta Bebeau - Painter

Loretta Bebeau
labebeau@msn.com
facebook.com/loretta.bebeau
www.mnartists.org/loretta_bebeau

Loretta Bebeau creates wall-based art, and is past President of the Northeast Minneapolis Arts Association (NEMAA). She has a Master of Arts degree focused on Sociology and Visual Art. Her studio is located in the Northrup King building (NKB) since moving out of the warehouse district in 2003. She exhibits in her studio and out of state.

Tell me about your work? What are you currently working on? How is this different from past projects?

I’m currently making nine-part grids, influenced by the game Tic Tac Toe. The grid material is Sheetrock, with graphite drawings on the surface. This work explores communication patterns. Past projects have been of recycled paper, formed into collage, assemblage, or cast paper pulp. The consistent thread in my art is related to personal growth. My work is conceptual. I can draw a landscape, but have a strong urge to rebel. The materials are quotidian; they challenge the established norm, but retain a bit of tradition when the art medium is added. As an art instructor it’s my duty to “expand the field” and that sometimes means challenging it. Recycling materials has been part of my philosophy since 1979, and it’s great to see the current respect for that concept.

What was the best advice given to you as an artist?

“Pay attention to the work.” from Hopkins artist Nancy Randall (http://www.artholdings.com/)

My advice: Always credit your sources. Visual artists author intellectual property. If you see my work at my studio, you should mention how it influenced your paintings, or changed your style. I’ve learned that artists are too independent and need to build that web of history for personal survival.


Tell me about your working space and your creative process?

My working space is shared with two other artists. I’m usually there alone because they have home studios too. They have completely different aesthetic philosophies, but I like the diversity. Two-thirds of the space is mine and I work on several projects at once.

Which Minnesota artists do you enjoy?

Jantje Visscher - conceptual painting/sculpture/installations. She uses three materials: plastic, nails, and a light bulb to create fantastic experiences.
Tom Rose - conceptual sculpture/installations.

Anastasia Ward - conceptual sculpture

Christopher Baker - video/installations
But there are many other artists still active and working under the radar.

If I were to follow you around on an “art day” in Minnesota, which places would we go? What would we see?

I start from Northeast Minneapolis to the Soap Factory, head over to MAEP or MCAD, then to a smaller gallery like XY&Z, perhaps Ancient Traders or Franklin Artworks, then to the North Loop’s Circa, Form & Content, Thomas Barry, or Traffic Zone galleries.

Where do you go online for good art resources, whether to find a new artist, or to see what is going on in the art world locally and otherwise?

I look at Chelsea Galleries in NYC, anything else is by chance.

Do you have any exhibits or any interesting things going on in your life or coming up in the near future?

Four of my grids were exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution, from June to September of 2010. I’ve been invited to show one or two of them at the Armory in March, 2011.

I’m preparing for an exhibit at 801 Gallery on Washington Ave North in 2012, another in Wisconsin, and there are several proposals pending.

Loretta Bebeau